How does an urban setting affect our psyche? Do mental conditions influence urban decision-making? Students of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, but also of political science and engineering from TUM, left their beaten paths in the winter of 2019/20 visiting the “mentally urban” lecture series, which focused on the interdependence of urban design and mental health – a so far scarcely addressed combo.

Experts from various disciplines shared their perspective on how the mental and the urban interlink: Medical researcher in epidemiology and public health (LMU), Jan Stratil, talked about “knowing what’s effective”; professor for urban design (HM), Andrea Benze, about “perception of space and patterns of use of the elderly”; the medical scientist and director of the clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy (TUM), Hans Förstl, postulated: “no cold feet when thinking about cities”; geographer and spatial epidemiological researcher in Zurich, Oliver Grübner, lectured on “geographies of emotions in cities based on twitter”; Sociologist and Scientific Director at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Ortwin Renn, on “risk and evaluating (urban) situations”. Though each lecture approached the theme with a different focus and the applied research methods were various, all lecture guests shared the same aim: to enhance the wellbeing of people.

In a concurrent seminar 9 students amplified all the exciting lecture input in edifying discussions with us. This magazine is the result. Issue #1 is a collection of written articles, interviews, reports of site visits and movie reviews, stating first thoughts, gaining knowledge and making observations on the topic “mentally urban”.

Among many new insights, we also picked out three toeholds for further research. Risking Contact, Stressing Perceptions and Experiencing Truths became the three main features structuring the contents of this first issue.

Magazine Issue #1 was the result of the accompanying seminar Sustainable Urbanism I (Advanced Seminar), involving students of architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and was developed alongside the interdisciplinary lecture series mentally urban during the winter semester 2019/20.

Issues #2, #3, and #4 (Summer 2020) focused on urban interaction under the influence of social distancing, new typologies of contact, and the shared exploration of urban contact from the perspectives of urban design and psychology.

All editions are available for purchase from the Chair of Sustainable Urbanism. Further information can be found under Publications.

Editorial + Lead:

Dr. Dorothee Rummel, Carmen Duplantier

Published by

Chair of Sustainable Urbanism
Prof. Mark Michaeli, Architekt ETH SIA
Faculty of Architecture
Technical University of Munich
Arcisstrasse 21
D-80333 Munich

Student Team

Layout and Editing:
Céline Ortmann, Alesia Prendi, Prayudi Sudiarto

Articles and Drawings:
Yuqing Cai, Aida Demchenko, Xinyi Li, Maria Knoll, Spyridon-Nektarios Koulouris, Céline Ortmann, Alesia Prendi, Ivan Selednikov, Prayudi Sudiarto